The Cannes Festival announced this morning that Marilyn Monroe would be gracing us with her presence this year–at least, virtually. The festival poster, which gets unveiled around this time of the year, will feature a Marilyn blowing on a birthday cake’s single candle, to mark what is a landmark year, this festival being the sixty-fifth.

The festival’s press release accompanying this poster states, “fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure in world cinema, an eternal icon, whose grace, mystery and power of seduction remain resolutely contemporary.”

It was announced earlier that Nanni Moretti would preside over this year’s jury; the 2012 selection will be announced in mid-April.

MORE READING: Screen Comment Editor Ali Naderzad’s interview with festival president Gilles Jacob on how to choose a festival’s theme music.

http://screencomment.com/2011/06/interview-gilles-jacob/?b8d99308